Flint, my man! THANK YOU for putting this up. It helped me today! (P.S. I'm making a video about my first time doing 3D printing and will be mentioning you and this video, because I think it is so valuable.)
Something we have to bear in mind guys, FEP film manufacturing is close to an exact science but there are still weaker tolorances than those with paper manufacturing. Therefor we cannot rely on the FEP film thicknesses to be as exacting as paper. That is why this method is preferred since it is being calibrated using the FEP film as oriented for the printer setup and takes into account the fact that not all FEP film is created equally and will ensure that your print bed is properly aligned for the film you will be aligning to. Thanks a ton for this video Flint, and I dont think you did a bad job at all creating the video!
You are a saint my friend! I was having failures with my photon. And with your settings you posted. I successfully printed out my first flawless print!! And now printing out my second! Thank you for your influence and wisdom!
I just wanted to thank you for this Flint! I repeatedly leveled my bed according to the manual and could only get prints to stick in the middle of the build plate. Immediately after leveling your way I've had two full plates come out perfect!
I struggled for a week with failed prints until someone on Reddit turned me on to your video. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video. I got my first successful print, the first time after leveling to your specs.
just wanted to say thanks for this. Ive been pulling my hair out for a week trying to get consistent success across my build plate and this did the trick.
Well I understood and had Zero issues with the video after 2 failed prints I tried this method and am halfway through my first print and it's actually sticking to the plate now, probably going to have to figure out the proper exposure settings but aside from that, you fixed the main issue I was having with this printer. Thank you for taking the time to make the video
This is the best way to level the bed. Thanks for this! Only thing with this printer is that when you tighten the screw to lock de plate it is pressed down a little by the screw. So when you put it on the FEP film and can't move it anymore, when you tighten the screw you press the plate down even more. So I had to play a little with this to get it right. Also you need to make sure the metal ring that secures the FEP film is not sticking out at the bottom. The FEP film needs to be the lowest thing sticking out at the bottom. Otherwise when you press down the plate you stretch the film down. But after failed prints this method is the best at this moment.
Thanks for your levelling method and this video. I've used your method with success as a new Photon user and hopefully to help clarify the menu aspect have re filmed a version with added touchscreen closeup shots to avoid confusion seen in some of the comments seen on the user group as to exactly which buttons and increments to choose. I linked this, your original video in the information under the video and all credit to you for creation of this method.
Thanks for sharing this video. It also started an interesting discussion about leveling itself. I cant see unboxing videos anymore ;) We need more videos like this. Anyway, i refined the paper leveling by cut the paper in two and push and pull them left and right individually, while moving the Z axis. With this i can make sure that the build plate isn't tilt left or right. Also i can double check it after tighten the allan screw. Sometimes tightening dis-adjusts the leveling. Another reason for dis-adjusting is holding the plate on the bracket while scratching away the prints. An important theme that i missed, you answered to arxefix, is the step setting. I wondered if 0,05 was right by remembering on my FDM experience. There is ,28 better then setting .3 mm for example. Finally i ll give your leveling method a try :)
Thank you so much! After about half a bottle of resin wasted and no prints to show with my new resin printer, I came across this and it just worked immediately!
I leveled the first time like the manual, first print failed then after searching FB groups I found Mr. Flint Read. I have never turned back. I now very rarely get a failed print. Thank you, Sir!
Thank you for this! I got my first resin printer yesterday and totally messed up my test print trying to level it with the paper method. This is a much better way!
Thank you! This seemed to have resolved my adhesion issue with opaque resins. They seem to be less forgiving with zero height than transparent resins for obvious reasons. The transparent green that came with my printer worked great every time, but I couldn't get anything to print with the gray. Just followed this and now I can hear the distinct popping of the print off the FEP on each layer.
Thank you. 3 days in a row im doing only failures and i was a little desperate, but like i never give up continue reading and now im here. Tomorrow im gonna try this method, not the other one with the paper and i hope its gonna work :) Peace !
Thank you so very much. Have been struggling after some times, no print what so ever. Bed was to high and the Anycubic method with one sheet didn't work, the resin gets pushed away I think. Using your method but with 4 sheets of paper and no vat and ofcourse the FEP film in the printer. Looked safer to me, FEP film is expensive' And now it,s printing again. BTW. 4 sheets of paper is 0,4 mm. minus the film ( 0'15/0'2 mm, according to Anycubic) the gap is between 0,2 and 0,25 mm. for me the ideal hight for resin printing. But remember, be very, very carefully, don't break the glass.
@@flintread despite screwing the plateform, during printing it has twist, I think the system is not reliable. Each print must be adjusted again, because it moves when you remove the model..... it's not a plug and play system. not for everybody. it takes a minimum of practical spirit, to be able to use it.
Considering the 5k views I'm not the only one with all layers printed on the fep :D tomorrow I'll give it a try and I hope your method will work also for me, thank you for your video :)
if you're worried about scratching your fep just cut a sheet of paper to fit the bottom of your vat and then only raise your bed level up .1 before setting zero
I just wanted to thank you for this tutorial, I had 4 failed prints in a row (I know it was user error). Tried your method and it is finally sticking to the build plate! I just had a question about cleaning the FEP, I use IPA and a micro fiber cloth(2 of them) but I'm still getting a foggy look to the bottom. Any tips on making it clearer?
I had no luck levelling with the paper method, it took ages and even then it seemed like one corner was always a lot lower than the others. Plus, you can't see where the build platform is going, cause there is a sheet of paper in the way. Going to give this a go, fairly confident it'll work based on all the comments :) Also, in another comment you mentioned an ideal layer height of 0.04mm. Does this take into account the pitch of the z-screw? I assume this is to do with micro-stepping. Is below 0.04mm layer heights feasible? What sort of resolution have you been able to get?
Actually I just did level it with my vat a little greasy with old resin (even though I cleaned it twice) and it didn't scratch it. First print with this new method, hope will work.
@@overunity its because of the left over resin, try it with a dry cat and if your scared about scratching it cut out a piece of paper to fit into the vat and only raise it up by .1 when setting the new z=0
Hi I followed the video and tried it on my brand new printer. unfortunately I did "try too hard to rotate the plate" when it was against the FEP and put some delightful scratches into my brand new FEP. I came back and watched the video again, only to find my mistake. So when Flint says dont try too hard to rotate the plate, Dont!!. Thanks for the video, now to try and print something ...
I tried your method but I have an issue :/ the rear support bracket of the plate can't go down any further, the resin van doesn't allow it and I heard some bad noise coming from the mechanism :( Another thing I don't understand is how much the plate needs to go down. I see you go up 0.3, but if my plate is not very low, nothing will remain attached/printed, everything is still in the van. I can do a good print once every ten times. :(
personal note, this difference made getting my prints of the bed much easier, i was often having too pry my prints off, and that would result in me ruining the leveling, and having to go back to square one.
I tried your technique yesterday and yes, it worked. I have had my machine for a week now and up to yesterday I had been unable to get a successful print. Well, today I tried to print something else and suddenly the LCD display wasn't working. I contact Anycubic tech support and they said to download the latest firmware version. I downloaded it, read the instructions on how to install it and did it. The machine rebooted and then the LCD display worked fine. So I loaded a file to print, poured in the resin and started the print. An hour or so later I paused the machine to see if it was printing. It wasn't. It had stuck to the FEP film and not to the printhead. I'm wondering if I should have re-leveled the print head because uploading new firmware might have reset the Z=0 setting. So my question is, do you relevel the machine and reset Z=0 on each print?
No, once you have a good leveling, just leave it there and just press print whenever you want to print a new file, but if you have a failed printing, you have to start all over again until you found that good leveling.
Hello Flint .i am new ,though my photon is coming .but what should i do when i get my photon. i see other video ,they make z 0 put piece of paper.so i am noob .please tell me what is the difference between 2 method. thanks
I have some problems with the gray color of anycubic, it does not stick to the plate, it does not have adhesion, after the first layer, the base comes off! can someone give me a hand ???? I have already tried to lower the "z" and to smooth the floor, can you give me a hand?
Flint. Appreciate the video. I tried this but ran into a problem. When the vat is in place, the arm of the lift hits the vat wall and stops before the plate is close to the screen. It never makes any sort of contact. Any ideas?
I'm a complete noob, but have read about this being a common problem on some AnyCubic Photons. The solution is to use washers/shims to space the arm. If you search on reddit.com/r/anycubicphoton, you should find the solution. ETA: imgur.com/gallery/Fw6a3nJ This talks about the solution.
so when it comes in contact with the FEP, you need to lift it 3 times 0.1mm, that means creating 0.3mm gap right? I'm quite confused as for printing 0.05mm layer, wouldn't that too wide? it's in fact 6 times of 0.05??
Thank you for your reply. I'll try again as my printing has some sort of problem: 1. I'm using Wanhao Clear Resin (I'm not even sure the resin setting of the wanhao clear resin, just using default value) 2. Tried to print a simple hollow box (some container) with the thickness of 1mm 3. The box not tilted, it is placed vertically to save space when printing multiple box Problem are, the wall is not even 1mm thick and the vertical wall seems always broken :( Also it leaves residue of cured resin on the FEP film.. My last leveling setting were using sheet of A4 and i'm resetting zero "when A4 sheet is no longer movable when tried to be pulled", looks like i'm setting it too low then??
Noted! But there are still confusion, first, did you mistype 0.03mm instead of 0.3mm? because the minimum setting when moving z-axis is 0.1mm ?? second, what is "off time"? or, when is is that "off time" happened?? as what i observe was, when the z axis moving up and down between exposing of each layer, it took about 6.5 secs, and clearly the UV lED is turned off within that 6.5secs.. based on this video, the off time seems just for calculating the printing time (?) -> ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YhAFLeSBrFc.html
That's interesting never thought of the impact the layer setting has on the stepper, always assumed manufactures would optimise for this when selecting hardware, naïve I guess. So as a rule for the Photon you know 0.04 or perhaps 0.08 would be optimal? P.s thanks for the Video, going straight to this method when my printer arrives!
I don't see why you raised it by 0.3mm. The normal instructions that use a sheet of paper don't have the FEP there, and paper is thinner than the FEP, and they don't have you raise it.
after i tighten the platform i can still move the platform. I am thinking it should be tight after this process? Just received this and dont want to try a print until i find out
Good video, i did buy this printer a week ago, but it wont print anything, i did try everthing, it just sticks to the vat, i was looking forward to make some good prints, but no i did level the printer 20 times-but no luck, and all my design files when sliced-says only 58 minutes to print, can you mabye help,- i have photos of my disasters, i you want to see, thanks
my last try was layer 0,5 and normal exposure time 15 and off time 4 and bottom exposure time 80 with 6 bottom layers, dident work- i will try your specs tomorrow
When you set the plate so tight against the FEP that you can't move the plate, you are pressing down the FEP against the LCD screen. Quite a bit, actually. backing it off .03 mm will make NO difference in reducing contact with the FEP. Also, when the plate lowers into resin, it most definitely WILL trap resin underneath it and be present for curing. It's science. I'm not saying that your method is wrong (it isn't), but your reasoning behind backing it off such a small amount is incorrect, as there is really no gap between the FEP and the build plate. Personally, I use a piece of paper flat on the screen with the vat removed, home the build plate, then go 2 full mm down, plus another .06 mm, tighten the build plate. I never have an issue with prints sticking to the build plate.
am I missing something or isn't he actually moving the plate up by 0.3 mm (not 0.03) after fixing it down on the FEP? 0.3 mm should be a good amount for a fat first layer, i should think...
Hi. My pritns faild. Model not sticking to platform. Leveling is (with paper) ok but after i instaling resin vat ant start printing first layers, print platform hits the resin vat. thanks to you I noticed what is happening, the walls resin vat are too high, I can not lower platform so that it adheres well to FEB Do you know what the reason is?
Hi David I have solved the problem. I changed the platform fastening, now it adheres well to FEP Look for this spare part EasyZ0 3dgarage.shop/en/others/60-easy-z0-anycubic-photon.html This is the only solution. but be very careful about the pressure to the screen, I do not do exactly as it is in the instructions EasyZ0.
@@grzegorzgrygorowicz4499 I was looking at the exact same item and wondered if it would be a solution, I'm glad to hear it is :). Thank you so much for following up. Out of interest, did you go to Anycubic support about the issue?
Yes ;-) I quote a question from the Anycubic support in the last conversation "Dear there, Really happy this problem can be solved. May i know how do you find the black part in below picture? Sorry for my disturbing. I just to know more about your solution, So that it can help other customers next time." :-)
Once leveling is done, the build plate should'nt move right? Mine gets a tilt almost as soon as it lifts up. Like tightening the screws does nothing to stop it.
